Seven years after the firm started putting Intel inside its laptops and desktops, Apple is said to be looking elsewhere for future chip architecture. According to Bloomberg, the firm is of the belief that mobile chip architecture will soon be powerful enough to run future iterations of MacBooks and iMacs.

The two firms are committed to each other for a few years yet, but Apple’s credo of uniformity across its devices will have its engineers searching for ways to do that. And, with its iMacs looking more and more like iPads, and its mobile devices functioning more and more like computers (and with Jony Ive leading both hardware and software at Cupertino) it’s only a matter of time before we’ll be cracking open any Apple device to find identical guts within. Last week’s deal between mobile chip king ARM and processor firm AMD, couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment.

For one final frisson of intrigue about this news, check out our analysis about Bob Mansfield, possibly Apple’s newest, oldest secret weapon for future tech. This Apple veteran has a long history in semiconductors, and all of the company’s acquired semiconductor teams now report to him.AD